New Music Friday: The best albums out June 14
NPR
Jess Cornelius, Care/Taking included in a list of the best albums out June 14th!
Jess Cornelius, Care/Taking included in a list of the best albums out June 14th!
The key to understanding the King Gizzard phenomenon is a willingness to imagine disparate categories in dense overlap, well beyond anything our post-genre pop era might have prepared us for. The group’s six musicians live at the center of a very unlikely Venn diagram: stylistic chameleons on par with Beck and Damon Albarn, prolific at a rate that outpaces even the famously hyper-productive Guided By Voices, mounting completely unpredictable live shows with the jam band ethos of Phish. Led by 32-year-old primary songwriter Stu Mackenzie, they have released 24 studio albums since 2010, five of which dropped in 2022. (Two of those, the MGMT-ish Omnium Gatherum and the groovy jazz-fusion opus Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, and Lava, are good entry points for the uninitiated.) The records tend to be organized around genre and musical high concepts — garage rock, various flavors of psychedelia, electronic excursions, prog, blue-eyed soul and several albums exploring the possibilites of microtonal tuning.
SIMON: We mentioned you wrote these songs during the early pandemic, and I gather your house was very full at that time, right?
FURMAN: It was a bit full. It was me and my gay wife and our 1-year-old. And then our friend just had a shaky kind of housing situation, and she moved into our living room for months. And then also we had this terrible landlord who lived right upstairs from us who was – well, he was prejudiced, you know? He was not happy that I was transgender when we moved in. So there was a lot of love in our house. And then there was this, like, overhang of transphobia.
‘On her third album as Spellling, the Bay Area-based wizardess Chrystia Cabral employs the language of myth, magic and fancy to illuminate her reality as an empathic artist negotiating the realities of a world that’s multifariously on fire.’
‘On “Whisper,” Segall mangles synthesizers until they sizzle and melt down into guitar-like lava. Combining sludgy stoner metal, electronic textures and sugary-sweet harmonies, Segall basically remakes heavy music into his own funhouse image. At the end, “Whisper” suddenly lurches into a slower gear, heading off in another direction.’
Jess Cornelius – Body Memory (Peach Fuzz Version) featured on NPR Music’s New Music Friday Playlist
“The New Zealand-born singer-songwriter’s debut solo album, Distance, captures a lot of the uncertainty that comes with several big life changes: grappling with expectations, finding love, and following your dreams.”
The fourth-quarter deluge continues this week with a slew of new releases, including the crooning, quirky soul of Rex Orange County, R&B singer Gallant, queer pop icon King Princess and more, plus the first new album in seven years from Neil Young & Crazy Horse. NPR Music’s Lyndsey McKenna and Stephen Thompson join host Robin Hilton as they share their picks for the best new albums out on Oct. 25.
Featured Albums:
Mikal Cronin — Seeker
Featured Song: “I’ve Got Reason”
In recent years, self-care culture has exploded beyond simple millennial infatuation; the term, which refers to the conscious integration of health and wellness practices into daily life, is equal parts lifestyle manifesto and multi-billion dollar industry. “No Difference,” the latest single from the New Zealand-born, Australia-raised singer Jess Cornelius, addresses the individual reckoning that occurs in the most intimate corner of the self-care sphere — the bathroom.
“…Mac DeMarco is just turning 27, but his new album, This Old Dog, seems to represent a more mature persona than he’s projected in the past…”
Sense of Place Melbourne: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
“…the California bandleader’s prolific output over the past decade has grown increasingly ambitious in its own humble and rough-hewn way; at the same time, he refuses to set aside the gnarled riffs, spilled booze and busted knuckles of his most blistering work.”
Could there be a better symbol of KEXP’s rebirth in our new home than the “Baby Big Man” that is Ty Segall?
Barreling on after a non-stop flurry of activity over the past eight years, Ty Segall is dropping his 10th solo album in the dead of winter, its cover depicting a Xeroxed baby head as it peers out of the fold amid a field of toner-black gradients.
A frenzy of poppy synths, rackety percussion and a throbbing bassline, this song effectively blends Furman’s visceral indie rock roots with his newer, glossier throwback sound.
“He then quickly released his new EP, Another One, which he concludes by giving his home address and inviting fans over for coffee. In today’s World Cafe session, hear DeMarco talk about how that invitation has worked out and give live performances of the new songs in the studio…”
” Marlon Williams puts his choir boy-meets-punk rocker touch on country music, King Gizzard & Lizard Wizard brings us back to the sunny ’60s and Savages forcefully reminds us that love is the answer…”
“With a new Fuzz album, though, Segall is back in the spotlight, playing drums with his power trio of guitarist Charlie Moothart (Moonhearts) and bassist Chad Ubovich (Meatbodies). This time around, he heaves forth an impressive 14-song double album made for headbanging and the cultivation of bad vibes, as if all the warmth and goodwill of last year’s Manipulator had turned to ash…
“For the charismatic 26-year-old songwriter who grew up in the landlocked plains of Canada, the water still holds an exotic appeal. Plus, the area’s laid-back feel is a perfect match for his laconic delivery and perpetually chill personality…”
“DeMarco’s as affable and breezy on the telephone as his mini-album of bayside would-be love songs is in your headphones, and as eager to reveal the inspiration behind a synth sound or guitar solo as he is to explore the hidden corners of ill-fated love…”
Cate Le Bon wrote some of my favorite words of 2013 on her album Mug Museum. White Fence is the swirly psych-like music of Tim Presley. Cate and Tim are friends — Cate played guitar on a tour with White Fence — and so now there’s this: DRINKS. DRINKS has an album coming August 21 and this is the title track, called “Hermits on Holiday.”
Manipulator plugs back in, turns all his amps to eleven and returns with a vengeance.
newest album, Manipulator is different: more produced and polished. Segall came to NPR West to talk about the album with NPR’s Arun Rath — and play a few songs for us…
On this week’s episode of All Songs Considered, prolific fuzz-rock mastermind Ty Segall joins host Robin Hilton to share some of the music that shaped his new album Manipulator and a behind-the-scenes look into his recording process…